From the first days of the Gulf oil disaster in 2010 when it publicly underestimated the oil gusher’s flow rate by 50 times, BP has always lived in a state of denial. But as the Gulf oil disaster approaches the four-year mark, BP is dramatically escalating its denial campaign, rejecting the science of even the most basic oil impacts on wildlife and attacking the National Wildlife Federation for taking reporters into the disaster zone.

Gulf Still Struggling

There is strong evidence that the ongoing illness of dolphins in a heavily oiled section of Louisiana is related to oil exposure.

Roughly five hundred dead sea turtles have been found every year for the past three years in the area affected by the spill—a dramatic increase over normal rates.

Sperm whales in the Gulf of Mexico have higher levels of DNA-damaging metals than sperm whales elsewhere in the world—metals that were present in oil from BP’s well.

We also took some reporters on a boat tour of the impacted areas in Louisiana’s Barataria Bay, hit hard by the BP oil. As you can see at right, today Cat Island is almost completely stripped of vegetation. For comparison, here’s what Cat Island looked like back in 2010, with thriving mangroves and a bustling rookery for pelicans, roseate spoonbills and other birds. Without the mangrove trees to hold the sand in place, some islands themselves are now beginning to wash away – gone for good.

BP Attacks NWF

BP came out swinging at the National Wildlife Federation for its report on Gulf species allegedly damaged by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and has taken strong issue with an environmental tour last week that the group sponsored in Barataria Bay.

A Tri-Parish Times reporter and a photographer were among the media representatives who traveled on the tour, which included stops at a pelican rookery and damaged barrier islands denuded of mangroves.

“The only thing this marsh tour illustrates is how little interest some advocacy groups have in telling the truth about the state of the Gulf’s recovery,” said Jason Ryan, a BP spokesman.

The section I’ve bolded above tells you just how deep BP’s denial goes – any damage at all is now “allegedly.” BP is now trying to turn wildlife impacts into a controversial topic that must be reported as a he said/she said issue, using its muscle and media connections to try to silence any organization or scientist who says otherwise.

Fishermen at the Myrtle Grove Marina south of New Orleans say despite a massive clean-up effort, Barataria Bay is still hurting.

“There are some areas that we may stay away from just because we know about tar balls popping up and this and that and we really don’t even visit those areas any longer,” said charter boat captain Chad Breland. “Sometimes you have to find new locations to fish. You may have to burn a lot more fuel. You may have to fish different places.”

BP is following the Exxon Valdez playbook – do what you can to look like you care, but always remember the top priority is protecting corporate profits by minimizing legal liability.

But here’s what the science tells us about dolphins in a heavily-oiled section of the Louisiana coast, according to a NOAA study just released in December 2013:

Bottlenose dolphins in Louisiana’s Barataria Bay have lung damage and adrenal hormone abnormalities not previously seen in other dolphin populations, according to a new peer-reviewed study published Dec. 18, 2013 in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. […]

For Dr. Lori Schwacke, the study’s lead author and veteran of a number of similar dolphin health studies across the southeast, the findings are troubling: “I’ve never seen such a high prevalence of very sick animals — and with unusual conditions such as the adrenal hormone abnormalities.”

The [Natural Resource Damage Assessment] researchers found that moderate to severe lung disease was five times more likely in the Barataria Bay dolphins, with symptoms including lung masses and consolidation. The researchers also found that 25 percent of the Barataria Bay dolphins were significantly underweight and the population overall had very low levels of adrenal hormones, which are critical for responding to stress.

NOAA has now expanded its study of live dolphins to waters in Mississippi and Alabama as part of its effort to understand why dolphins across the northern Gulf of Mexico—the area affected by the oil—have been dying in high numbers since February 2010.

For the truth about the state of the Gulf, watch this National Wildlife Federation video:

If you listened to BP on April 24, 2010, there was a small problem in the Gulf of Mexico and about 42,000 gallons of oil were leaking every day. Turns out, it was probably more like 2.2 million gallons a day. But four years later, BP wants you to think that Gulf has is healthy and only “isolated” areas are still at risk. We can’t trust BP – but we can ask the government to make BP pay for the damage it’s done.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2014/04/dead-gulf-dolphins-destroyed-habitat-not-bps-fault-says-bp/feed/2Biologists Study Impact of BP Oil Disaster On Loonshttp://blog.nwf.org/2014/04/biologists-study-impact-of-bp-oil-disaster-on-loons/
http://blog.nwf.org/2014/04/biologists-study-impact-of-bp-oil-disaster-on-loons/#respondTue, 15 Apr 2014 16:32:21 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=94365Just over a year ago, I held a “charismatic megavertebrate” on my lap. As a participant on a research project in the Gulf of Mexico just off the coast of Louisiana, I had tucked the common loon’s head under my left arm, secured its feet with my right hand, and held its body gently but firmly against mine as the boat we rode on raced back to shore. There, in an improvised lab under a bar on stilts, biologist Jim Paruk, who had just netted the bird, would quickly weigh, measure, band and assess the loon’s health before releasing it.

Like tigers, dolphins and bald eagles, common loons are considered charismatic megavertabrates because they are large, at least for birds, and tend to be well liked by the general public. On their breeding grounds in the far north—where the birds’ haunting calls have come to symbolize summertime in the wilderness—common loons also “may be the best-studied birds in North America,” says Paruk, senior scientist at the Maine-based Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI). He and his BRI colleagues alone have banded more than 4,800 loons in 22 states and seven Canadian provinces.

Winter Loon Mysteries

In winter, common loons molt to a dull plumage and vocalize very little. The bird on the left has been banded by researchers. Photo by Darwin Long.

Yet in the Gulf of Mexico and other places loons spend the nonbreeding season, very little is known about the birds’ behavior and ecology during winter. Not only do loons molt to a dull plumage in the colder months, they vocalize little, making it difficult for scientists to study them. Even local fishermen can be surprised to learn there are loons are in the Gulf. Point out one of the birds bobbing offshore and you’re likely to be told that it’s a cormorant.

Paruk and his colleagues are trying to uncover the secrets of winter loon biology—at least for birds that winter in and around Louisiana’s Barataria Bay. For the past four years, with funding from the Earthwatch Institute, Snow Family Foundation and BRI, the researchers have been making new discoveries about winter loons’ feeding, migration and other behaviors.

Sadly, their work also is beginning to suggest that loons may have been harmed more by the BP oil disaster than scientists previously realized. Because Barataria Bay was hit hard by the spill, Paruk’s teams have been taking blood samples from the birds they capture, looking specifically for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. The class of hydrocarbons most toxic to wildlife, PAHs cause a range of health problems, including anemia, liver damage, cancer and immunosuppression.

Hydrocarbon Spike

During the first two years of the study, the number of loons with PAHs in their blood increased between 2011 and 2012, as did concentrations of the contaminants. Overall PAH levels remained low, however. But in 2013, reports Paruk in a recent article in National Wildlife,” we detected a large spike in PAHs and a completely different oil signature—heavy PAHs that are more toxic to wildlife.”

His findings are troubling. That loons had significantly more PAHs in their blood three years after the spill than immediately following it suggests that hydrocarbons may be making their way up the food chain, Paruk says. And unlike his first two years’ results, he adds, “the concentrations we found in 2013 may be high enough to cause physical harm.”

Last month, Paruk wrapped up his fourth field season in the Gulf. In addition to measuring PAH levels, the researchers this year are also analyzing blood for signs of Corexit, the chemical dispersant used to break up the spilled oil. (In Minnesota, scientists have found evidence of Corexit in white pelicans that were in the Gulf during the spill.) In addition, an immunologist will study the samples to see if the birds’ immune systems are damaged.

Where Are the Loons?

Riding in a small rubber raft, Gary Lackie captured this common loon off the coast of Alaska. Photo donated by National Wildlife Photo Contest entrant Gary Lackie.

While results of those analyses will not be available for several months, Paruk says he and his colleagues already have noticed something different—and potentially alarming—this year. “We encountered far fewer loons in the study area than in the previous three years,” he says. “There could be many reasons, some having nothing to do with the oil spill,” Paruk adds. Lacking long-term data on loon numbers in the Gulf, there may be natural population fluctuations that scientists are unaware of, for example.

Another possibility, however, is that loons affected by the oil spill may be producing fewer chicks on their northern breeding grounds, so fewer juveniles are showing up during winter. Next summer, Paruk will launch a new project in Canada to assess the status of breeding loons that winter off the Louisiana coast. If he finds signs of trouble, it will not be too surprising. “After all,” Paruk says, “we are still seeing impacts on Alaskan wildlife more than 20 years after the Exxon Valdez.”

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2014/04/biologists-study-impact-of-bp-oil-disaster-on-loons/feed/0Fate of Gulf Wildlife Still Uncertain 4 Years After BP Oil Disasterhttp://blog.nwf.org/2014/04/fate-of-gulf-wildlife-still-uncertain-4-years-after-bp-oil-disaster/
http://blog.nwf.org/2014/04/fate-of-gulf-wildlife-still-uncertain-4-years-after-bp-oil-disaster/#commentsTue, 08 Apr 2014 14:30:11 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=93979It has been four years since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing 11 workers and sending more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Sea Turtles

Sea turtles covered in oil were some of the most shocking images from the disaster. But BP’s oil may have affected far more turtles than previously known. Buried in a recent federal study is the revelation that large-scale aerial surveys indicated that tens of thousands of sea turtles were in the oiled area of the Gulf in 2010.

The fallout from the spill may have put the brakes on the recovery of at least one sea turtle species. As Pamela Plotkin, the Director of Texas Sea Grant, explains, “The Kemp’s ridley sea turtle has long been the poster child for the possibilities of restoration in the Gulf. Once close to extinction, it has rebounded dramatically over the past 30 years. But four years ago, the numbers of Kemp’s ridley appear to have flatlined.”

Oysters

Oysters are not just a treat for seafood lovers, these humble bivalves play an essential role in the ecology of the Gulf. A single oyster can filter as much as 50 gallons of water per day, and oyster reefs provide important foraging and refuge habitat for hundreds of different species.

However, a recent federal study looking at the environmental impacts of the spill found that oyster reproduction was “extremely low or zero in 2010” over large areas of the northern Gulf of Mexico—and that oyster reproduction remained low at least through the fall of 2012.

Common loons

This migratory species spends its summers in northern climates and was not on the Gulf Coast while the well was gushing oil. Even so, loons that winter on the Louisiana coast appear to have increasing concentrations of toxic oil compounds in their blood, possibly indicating that hydrocarbons from the disaster are making their way up the food chain.

Tuna

A new study has found that a chemical in oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill causes irregular heartbeats in bluefin and yellowfin tuna that can lead to heart attacks, or even death. Juveniles may be particularly vulnerable as these heartbeat changes can also affect the development of other organs, such as the lungs and liver. The researchers believe that these findings may have implications for other species of vertebrates exposed to oil.

Right now, we have the opportunity to address the ongoing impacts of the disaster as well as the Gulf’s pre-existing environmental problems—but only if we make our voices heard.

Congress passed a law called the RESTORE Act with strong bipartisan support in the summer of 2012. This law will send 80% of Clean Water Act civil fines paid by BP and other parties responsible for the disaster back to the Gulf States to support restoration efforts aimed at sustaining the health of the Gulf for future generations.

This has never been done before in response to any other oil spill. Typically, Clean Water Act fines – which are based on the negligence of the responsible parties and the amount of oil spilled – would go into a federal trust fund to use in response to future spills. The RESTORE Act sends those dollars right to the damaged communities themselves.

Money from the RESTORE Act will flow into different “pots,” each with its own restrictions:

Pot 1 – 35%: Each Gulf Coast state will get the same amount of money to implement a state plan that will fund projects such as restoring wildlife habitats and improving water quality. This pot also includes a few vague categories like “job creation” and “infrastructure projects that benefit the economy,” which sound good but could open the door to spending the money on projects that won’t help the Gulf—and could cause further degradation.

Pot 2 – 30% plus interest: The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council will draft and implement a comprehensive plan for restoring the ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico. In their plan, the Council argued that economic restoration of the Gulf Coast will be a natural result of funding ecosystem restoration programs and projects.

Pot 3 – 30%: Each Gulf Coast state is required to develop and then implement a restoration plan that complies with the Council’s Gulf-wide plan. Heavily-oiled Louisiana will likely largest portion of this money, but each state is guaranteed a minimum percentage of funds from this pot.

Pot 4 – 2.5% plus interest: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will create and implement a Gulf Coast Science Program. This program will support marine and estuarine research projects, conduct monitoring, and collect data on fisheries.

Pot 5 – 2.5% plus interest. Each Gulf Coast state will establish Centers of Excellence – research facilities – to focus on science, technology, and monitoring of a variety of different Gulf issues, such as deltas, commercial development, and mapping of the entire Gulf of Mexico.

Chart from http://www.restore.ms

But the RESTORE Act can’t do it alone. As Gulf Coast citizens, we have to make our voices heard if we want to see these funds used to benefit the Gulf—not on dubious pet projects that may even damage the ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico. We have to bring the words on the pages of the RESTORE Act to life by initiating and inserting ourselves into a robust public dialogue about the Act’s implementation in each state and what the restoration priorities are across the Gulf ecosystem.

Given all of the competing projects potentially eligible for RESTORE funding, we need to let our decision-makers know that that funding natural resource restoration projects is the key to protecting both the coastal environment and economy, now and for our children’s future.

This is our chance to respond to the disaster and we can’t let it pass us by.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2014/03/will-the-restore-act-actually-restore-the-gulf-of-mexico/feed/0Study: Deepwater Horizon Oil Causes Heart Damage in Tunahttp://blog.nwf.org/2014/02/study-deepwater-horizon-oil-causes-heart-damage-in-tuna/
http://blog.nwf.org/2014/02/study-deepwater-horizon-oil-causes-heart-damage-in-tuna/#commentsFri, 14 Feb 2014 16:13:10 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=91943A new study has found that a chemical in oil from the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill causes irregular heartbeats in bluefin and yellowfin tuna that can lead to heart attacks, or even death. The researchers believe that similar impacts may have affected a broad range of species in the wake of the Gulf oil disaster.

The study details how chemicals in the oil interfere with the cells in fish hearts, potentially making it difficult for the heart to contract, causing arrhythmias. In essence, each time the heart beats is a challenge, sometimes taking longer to beat than normal and thus creating irregular heartbeat patterns. As this happens more frequently, the risk of heart attack continues to increase.

In addition, the research indicates that the juveniles of other fish and vertebrates may be particularly vulnerable. In an Times Picayune, additional concerns were highlighted:

“The effects are believed to be more of a problem for fish embryos and early developing fish, because the heartbeat changes could also affect the development of other organs, including the lungs and liver”, said Nathaniel Scholz, head of the Ecotoxicology Program at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle.

Could these types of impacts be causing mortalities in populations of crabs, sea turtles, and dolphins? It’s a possibility, as the paper points out that similar impacts were “potentially a common form of injury among a broad range of species during and after the DWH spill.”

In addition, the study points our that “other vertebrates may have been particularly vulnerable.” Other vertebrates is a large category, one that includes all fish, sharks, sea turtles, dolphins and whales. In fact, the paper specifically calls for more research into marine mammals, as marine mammals apparently have similar properties in their muscle cells as the tuna species studied.

Keep in mind that these findings are part of the ongoing Natural Resrouce Damage Assessment process being used to evaluate spill impatcs. As new research continues to confirm nongoing impacts from the oil disaster, it is imperative that additional research evaluate links between these symptoms in Tuna and those in other species potentially impacted by the spill.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2014/02/study-deepwater-horizon-oil-causes-heart-damage-in-tuna/feed/1Dolphins Call Each Other Out by Their Nameshttp://blog.nwf.org/2013/07/dolphins-call-each-other-out-by-their-names/
http://blog.nwf.org/2013/07/dolphins-call-each-other-out-by-their-names/#commentsThu, 25 Jul 2013 18:20:31 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=83435Although we don’t talk to dolphins, we are learning more about how they communicate with one another. A recent study released by the University of St. Andrews in Scotland gives evidence to the evolving theory that dolphins use unique whistles to identify each other and dolphins in the study responded to their own call played back to them. In essence, scientists say they can now call them out by their “names.”

Photo credit: flickr / thepugfather

The idea that dolphins use distinctive whistles to interact with one another has been building steam in recent years and scientists believe that these sounds are akin to how we humans use names to address each other. These findings, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, mark the first time researchers have studied this “name recognition” in dolphins.

By recording the unique whistles of a group of wild bottlenose dolphins and playing the audio back to the animals through underwater speakers, they observed that the individual dolphins only responded to their own unique whistles. The dolphins did so by echoing back their signature sound.

Living in an environment in which animals run along a dime by dozen, keeping a group together can be hard to handle so dolphins have had to develop unique ways of keeping in touch. Scientists believe this ability helps the dolphins stay in touch with their group as they travel long distances in the open ocean.

Dolphins’ natural curiosity and intelligence continues to surprise us as we learn more about these aquatic creatures. Unfortunately, dolphins continue to suffer as a result of anthropogenic (that’s right, human-caused) hazards.

So long, and thanks for all the… oil?

Many of us prefer to think of dolphins in Douglas Adams’ terms of happy, healthy, fish-eating friends, not sickly and dying animals whose waters have been spoiled and lives put in harm’s way. Dolphins should eat fish not oil, but the legacy we’re leaving them isn’t quite so simple and pristine. Dolphins may be amazing communicators, but despite their best efforts, they can’t speak up for themselves in our terms–they need our voices to inspire decision-makers to act in their best interest.

Even if you’re not a fan of the Black Crowes or Douglas Adams, you can appreciate that these creatures are utterly amazing and though they can call each other by their names, they need our voices to protect them and their ecosystems from our folly.

To say the Gulf is in trouble is an understatement. Decades of misuse have left the Gulf’s natural bounty vulnerable. But we can act. We must. And fast. Here’s why:

Every year, like clockwork, hurricane season comes to the Gulf Coast. For residents, this means more than stocking up a storm kit with new batteries and fresh water. It means wondering, “Will this be a big one?” In an era of changing ocean temperatures, rising seas, and increasingly severe storms, all-too-often, the answer is “Yes.”

Every day, Americans fill their cars with oil—much of which is produced offshore underneath Gulf waters. There the rigs sit precariously perched tapping into a resource that is flammable, explosive and toxic.

Every spring, rainfall washes nitrogen from agricultural fields along the Mississippi River surging into the Gulf. The mega-fertilizer leads to algae blooms that die and send oxygen levels plummeting. The result? A vast lifeless area, thousands of square miles wide.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2013/06/paradise-found-3-reasons-to-restore-the-gulf/feed/5Weekly News Roundup – April 19, 2013http://blog.nwf.org/2013/04/weekly-news-roundup-april-19-2013/
http://blog.nwf.org/2013/04/weekly-news-roundup-april-19-2013/#respondFri, 19 Apr 2013 18:36:22 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=78851Want to know what National Wildlife Federation was up to this week? Here is a recap of the week’s NWF news:

Three Years Later, Panhandle Leaders Say Gulf Restoration Could Be Economic Boon

April 18-On the eve of the three-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, five prominent Floridians called for investing money from the federal oil spill penalties into restoring the ecosystem of the Gulf Coast.

“Three years ago, Escambia County was threatened by the worst environmental disaster in US history,” said Grover Robinson, Escambia County commissioner and chair of Florida’s Gulf Consortium. “While we sustained damage to both our environment and economy, through both good fortune and hard work, we have cleaned up and visitors have returned to our beaches, hotels and restaurants. Still, restoration cannot fully occur until we implement the RESTORE Act which will provide a wonderful opportunity to repair those damages to the Gulf of Mexico region.”

April 18-Three years ago, on April 20, the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and killed 11 workers. Two days later, the rig sank. Before BP finally capped the well, months later, 206 million gallons of oil had been released along with huge quantities of hydrocarbon gases.

Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, said today:

“Nearly three years later, the impacts of the Gulf oil disaster continue to unfold. Dolphins and sea turtles are still dying in high numbers. Just this month scientists announced the spill’s underwater oil plume caused a massive die-off of creatures at the base of the Gulf’s food web. It’s clear that we will not know the full fallout from the disaster for years.

“BP needs to be held fully accountable. The outcome of the ongoing trial must send an unmistakable signal to every oil company that cutting corners on safety is simply not a smart thing to do.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2013/04/weekly-news-roundup-april-19-2013/feed/0Peru Stands up to Big Oil. Will U.S. and Ecuador?http://blog.nwf.org/2013/03/peru-stands-up-to-big-oil-will-u-s-and-ecuador/
http://blog.nwf.org/2013/03/peru-stands-up-to-big-oil-will-u-s-and-ecuador/#respondWed, 27 Mar 2013 02:49:03 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=77443

The Inca city of Machu Picchu

Last year my husband and I honeymooned in Machu Picchu, Peru. In Quechua — the language spoken by the Inca who built the city — Machu Picchu means “Old Mountain.”

Many human hands have touched this architectural and spiritual marvel, and the wildlife impacts are apparent. The once-wild Alpaca are now domesticated. The Andean condors revered by the Inca and signified in the ruins are rarely spotted crossing the valley dividing Machu Picchu from its neighboring peak Huayna Picchu.

Yet the natural beauty endures.

The city sits almost at the summit of the mountain and is surrounded on three sides by the Urubamba River. The Quechua word for water is “Yaku.” Civilization has often flourished near rivers because they serve as a source of necessary freshwater, abundant fish, and aqueous superhighways for commerce and transportation. For the Inca and indigenous people who still inhabit the region, Yaku is life.

On the 24th anniversary of the Exxon-Valdez oil disaster, it’s disheartening that 11,500 square miles of the Amazon rainforest beneath these peaks will be auctioned off for oil production. Indigenous groups in the region rely on one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world to provide food, water, shelter, and medicines. The Achua and Quechua people reside in the river basins straddling Ecuador and Peru beneath the Andes Mountains that form the headwaters of the Amazon River.

These people shoulder the most acute cost of inherently dangerous oil exploration in this pristine setting — and they don’t feel the Ecuadorean government is taking their concerns seriously. According to Narcisa Machienta, a leader in the Achua community, “they have not consulted us…they don’t have our permission to exploit our land.”

Unfortunately, the Achua and Quechua know this from experience. Occidental Petroleum began production in the Pastaza River basin in the 1970s. Since that time, Sixto Shapiama of the Quechua community says there have been “constant spills…[T]he sediment at the bottom of the river is completely contaminated.”

That’s the thing about oil production: the environmental toll is paid by the public at large while a few industry players profit. The Quechua and the Achua don’t receive a cut of the royalties, but they do suffer the consequences of contamination.

Likewise, BP shareholders received dividend checks even as Gulf fishermen struggled to sell their catch.

In the United States, environmental laws attempt to shift some of the actual impact of oil production to the industry. As a result, BP is liable for response costs, all quantifiable damages, and civil and criminal penalties for its role in the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The Department of Justice is pursuing claims against BP in federal court. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier has an opportunity to ensure an oil company accounts for the real cost of its business.

The Peruvian government does too. The good news is that the Environment Ministry is finally taking that opportunity: In January, Pluspetrol was issued $11 million in fines for contamination at Peru’s largest crude oil field. Just this week, the Ministry declared the region an environmental state of emergency, ordered Pluspetrol and Occidental to clean up their mess, and set standards to limit soil contamination.

Let’s hope for the sake of the Quechua, the Achua, the Amazon, the condor, clean water, and future generations of honeymooners that the Ecuadorean government follows suit. And for the sake of Floridians, Louisianans, Americans, the Gulf of Mexico, sea turtles, and our children, let’s hope Judge Barbier does too.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2013/03/peru-stands-up-to-big-oil-will-u-s-and-ecuador/feed/0For Gulf Restoration, Every Dollar Countshttp://blog.nwf.org/2013/03/for-gulf-restoration-every-dollar-counts/
http://blog.nwf.org/2013/03/for-gulf-restoration-every-dollar-counts/#commentsThu, 07 Mar 2013 15:58:35 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=75796This weekend I had the opportunity to discuss what BP might face at trial for the Gulf oil disaster with some eloquent thought leaders, including Tulane political science professor and MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry. We discussed the continuing “unusual mortality event” of Gulf dolphins, the 565,000 pounds of Deepwater Horizon oil that washed ashore only six months ago with Hurricane Isaac, and other continuing impacts of the disaster.

It’s difficult to quantify the harm in an environmental disaster. The Gulf is enormous and oil gushed from over a mile below the surface of the ocean. Because water and wildlife move, it would be near-impossible to find every bit of damage. Researchers found evidence of Deepwater Horizon oil in pelican eggs in Minnesota last year! To compound matters, the impacts are far-reaching into parts of the ecosystem that scientists don’t know much about. For instance, a substantial amount of the oil moved southwest of the Macondo well and settled into a deep underwater canyon.

BP’s 2012 annual report indicates that Chief Executive Bob Dudley, who spoke at the CERAWeek Energy Industry conference yesterday about just about everything but trial, made $2.67 million last year. In the three years since the spill, BP has netted close to $40 billion, even after covering the cost to cap the well, run ubiquitous “our beaches are open” commercials, pay individual claims and pay the largest corporate criminal penalty by the Department of Justice.

The law that governs oil spills is clear: since profits from offshore drilling are so high and the consequences are so dangerous, unsafe drillers who spill must compensate for all damage and face penalties. This helps discourage putting profits over safety.

Unbelievably, on the day of our panel, the Washington Post ran an editorial arguing that BP should not face severe penalties.The editorial posed the question, “How much is too much for BP?” In what must be a tagline meant for an April Fool’s Day piece, the editorial continued, “A bill anywhere near that large is impossible to justify.” This is precisely why polluters engage in willful blindness to legal requirements: environmental laws are viewed as somehow less legitimate than tax evasion, racketeering, or labor laws. But crime is crime.

Testimony from the trial shows that this multi-billion dollar corporation had an “every dollar counts” mentality that led them to take egregious safety risks to cut costs, resulting in the loss of eleven lives and over 172 million gallons of crude oil spilled in one of the most productive ecosystems in the world. Misplaced sympathy for BP’s liability is akin to taking pity on Ponzi schemers facing punitive damages for their crimes. BP made calculated business decisions to take dangerous shortcuts in search of profit. The only way to prevent such behavior in the future is to balance the scales of justice so that the reward no longer justifies the risk.